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Harsh world makes kids’ chromosomes look middle-aged

CHILDREN growing up severely disadvantaged can experience dramatic ageing in their chromosomes. By age 9, their telomeres – the caps on the ends of chromosomes that shrink each time cells divide – can be as short as those of someone decades older.

Daniel Notterman from Penn State University in University Park and colleagues found the effect in a group of 40 9-year-old boys, half of whom were from extremely deprived backgrounds and half from privileged ones.

Telomeres protect chromosomes from damage, so their shortening over time is thought to be responsible for some of the negative effects of ageing. Children whose mothers changed partners more than once by the time they were 9 had telomeres 40 per cent shorter than those with no changes. And those whose mothers attended college had 35 per cent longer telomeres than those who didn’t, on average (PNAS, DOI&colon; 10.1073/pnas.1404293111).

“The social environment really conditions the way that these children are living, and their health,” says Notterman, who warns the link between shorter telomeres and health outcomes is not fully established. “But it’s a very profound change,” he says.